Princess Margarita de Bourbon de Parme on Tuesday announced her wedding to 32-year old Dutchman Tjalling Ten Cate. The wedding will take place in May. Margarita, who has been engaged for some time, also announced she is expecting a child in August.
Read also: Margarita's father treated for cancer and Margarita takes boyfriend to Gala
The couple in a joint statement said to be 'very happy', and at the same time asked the media to respect their privacy.
The wedding, according to the statement, will be a low-key affair. Mr. Tjalling Ten Cate, who studied law at Leyden University, works at the Netherlands National Bank.
Princess Margarita has known him for a couple of years. The couple have been sharing a house in Amsterdam for over one year. Earlier this month Mr. Tjalling Ten Cate attended the double birthday bash for Margarita's aunts Queen Beatrix and Princess Margriet in Amsterdam, at which time the Dutch public got a first official glimpse of Margarita's beau.
Princess Margarita in 2001 married Mr. Edwin De Roy van Zuydewijn. That marriage, which was entered against the wishes and advice of the royal family and Margarita's father's family Bourbon de Parme - Queen Beatrix, her godmother, and her father Prince Carlos Hugo being among the absentees at the wedding - ended in divorce in November 2006.
Only last month Margarita was making headline news again because she alledgedly was in arrays of paying lawyers who defended her in lawsuits she, and her husband at the time, Mr. Edwin De Roy van Zuydewijn, filed against, among others, the Dutch State.
Princess Margarita (pictured with her former husband in Dutch Parliament in 2003) has to make do with 800 euro per month, her present lawyer claims. She is said to borrow this money from her mother, Princess Irene.
It is believed the low income of the 35-year old Princess is to prevend her former husband, whom she divorced in 2006, from staking a claim on it.
Margarita's present lawyer, Mr. Grem Kemper, commented that his colleagues should have represented the princess and her husband for free; the lawyers never sent a bill, but say a fee had been agreed. "I expect the Princess to pay up", Mr. Frits Kemp, one of the lawyers, is quoted.
Princess Margarita de Bourbon de Parme and her husband in 2003 accused the royal familiy and Queen Beatrix especially of spiteful obstruction of their lives. They claimed they were spied on, austracized, and Mr. De Roy van Zuydewijn's promising business career was torpedoed by pressure from the Palace.
"This is not the Margarita I know", the Queen said in response to the vicious accusations, for which the couple went to the press. Margarita and her husband later seperated and eventually, after a bitter struggle, divorced. Margarita has since been accepted back in the royal family.
© GPD Netherlands Press Association; Photos by © GPD and © Royal Press Europe, Albert Nieboer
Comments